APEX COURT TO DECIDE TOMORROW ON AG’S LEAVE APPLICATION OVER NAJIB'S ADDITIONAL DOCUMENT

KUALA LUMPUR, April 27 (Bernama) -- The Federal Court will decide tomorrow on the Attorney-General's (AG) leave application to appeal against the existence of an additional document in the case involving former Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

A three-member bench comprising Chief Judge of Malaya Datuk Seri Hasnah Mohammed Hashim and Federal Court judges Datuk Zabariah Mohd Yusof and Datuk Hanipah Farikullah will deliver the verdict at 9 am.

On March 24, the panel heard submissions from Attorney-General Datuk Mohd Dusuki Mokhtar and Najib’s lead counsel, Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, on the AG’s leave application.

On Jan 6, in a 2-1 majority decision, the Court of Appeal remitted the case on Najib’s claim of the existence of an additional document purportedly allowing him to serve the remainder of his six-year prison sentence under house arrest, to the High Court to be heard on its merits. 

This decision overturned the High Court’s earlier ruling, which had dismissed Najib’s application for leave to commence a judicial review regarding the alleged additional document.

The AG, as the applicant, had filed the leave application against the Court of Appeal ruling. An applicant must obtain leave to proceed with the appeal to the Federal Court.

Najib, 71, is seeking a mandamus order compelling the respondents to confirm and disclose the existence of the alleged additional document dated Jan 29, 2024. 

He named the Home Minister, Commissioner-General of Prisons, Attorney-General, Pardons Board for the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur, Labuan, and Putrajaya, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), Director-General of the Legal Affairs Division in the Prime Minister’s Department and the Government of Malaysia as respondents.

The former Pekan MP also sought an order that, should the additional document be proven to exist, all respondents or any one of them should enforce it immediately and transfer him from Kajang Prison to his residence in Kuala Lumpur to serve the remainder of his sentence. 

On July 3 last year, High Court Judge Datuk Amarjeet Singh dismissed Najib’s application for leave to initiate a judicial review, ruling that the four affidavits submitted in support of his claim, which included statements by UMNO president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and UMNO vice president Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail, were hearsay and inadmissible as evidence in court.

Najib has been serving his sentence at Kajang Prison since Aug 23, 2022, following his conviction for misappropriating RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd.

The High Court initially sentenced him to 12 years in prison and fined him RM210 million, a decision which was subsequently upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Federal Court. 

However, his petition for a royal pardon on Sept 2, 2022 resulted in the Pardons Board halving his prison sentence to six years and reducing his fine to RM50 million.

-- BERNAMA